John Ternouth (c.1796 - 1848) was an English sculptor of the early 19th century. His most notable work is one of the four panels at the base of Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square, depicting the Battle of Copenhagen.
John Ternouth was descended from a family of Plymouth stonemasons. He was born in Andover, Hampshire in 1796, and moved to London in around 1810. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1820 and later studied under Sir Francis Chantrey. While working in Chantrey's studio, he also built up a practice as a sculptor in his own name, making busts and funerary monuments..[1] His works include a statue of John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl in Dunkeld Cathedral,[2] and a monument to Bishop Allen in Ely Cathedral.[3]
From 1842 he was employed in cleaning and restoring the monuments in Westminter Abbey.[4] He was recommended to this post by the architect Edward Blore, who also employed him at Buckingham Palace, to carve figures of St George and Britannia.[1]
Ternouth was commissioned to sculpt a bronze relief on the pedestal of Nelson's Column, depicting the Battle of Copenhagen, on the recommendation of the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel. The plaster was completed in June 1848, and Prince Albert visited his studio to inspect it at the beginning of the next month. Ternouth died of typhus in December 1848, before the bronze was installed on the column. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London.[1]